Geely says has no plan to buy Fiat Chrysler

Geely was one of several Chinese carmakers cited in an auto-industry news website which said representatives of "a well-known Chinese automaker" had made an offer this month for FCA, which has a market value of almost $20 billion.REUTERS | August 16, 2017, 18:39 IST

Geely was one of several Chinese carmakers cited in an auto-industry news website which said representatives of "a well-known Chinese automaker" had made an offer this month for FCA, which has a market value of almost $20 billion.

"We don't have such plan at the moment," Geely Automobile executive director Gui Shengyue told reporters at an earnings briefing, when asked if Geely was interested in Fiat.

He said a foreign acquisition would be complicated, but he did not elaborate. "But for other (Chinese) brands, it could be a fast track for their development," Gui added.

However, a source close to the matter said FCA and Geely Automobile's parent firm, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, had held initial talks late last year, without disclosing their nature.

The source confirmed Geely was no longer interested in FCA, noting that the parent company had only three months ago announced its first push into Southeast Asia with the purchase of 49.9 percent of struggling Malaysian carmaker Proton.

Geely Automobile's denial failed to dent FCA's share price, which has jumped more than 10 percent to a 19-year high since the U.S. website Automotive News said on Monday, citing unnamed sources, that FCA had rejected the Chinese offer as too low.

FCA declined to comment on Wednesday.

FCA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has repeatedly called for mergers as a way of sharing the costs of making cleaner, more advanced cars, but he has failed so far to find a partner among the company's bigger rivals.

Europe's largest carmaker, Volkswagen, and General Motors have both said they are not interested in talks with FCA.

On Wednesday, Geely Automobile reported a doubling of first-half profit, above expectations, as cars designed with Sweden's Volvo won over domestic consumers. Volvo is a unit of the Zhejiang Geely group.

Like its peers, the Hangzhou-based group is looking at expanding overseas with a particular interest in entering the profitable North American market.

FCA's Marchionne retreated from his search for a merger in April, saying the carmaker was not in a position to seek deals for now and would stick to its business plan.

The Italian government has made no comment on the merger speculation but an Italian daily said on Tuesday that Rome was worried about potential job losses. Given FCA's legal domicile is in the Netherlands, and its headquarters is in the UK, the government could not do much to influence a takeover, it added.

Geely shares closed up 0.8 percent in Hong Kong, in line with the broader market. The company has a market value of around $22 billion.

FCA's Milan-listed shares were up 3 percent in afternoon trade at 10.96 euros, after touching 11.13 euros, their highest level since July 1998.

(Reporting By Hong Kong Newsroom and Norihiko Shirouzu in BEIJING; Writing by Giulia Segreti in MILAN; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)